Order Part 3

This is the last lesson for the Unit. To rap up the goal section, I had Hailey make her bed last night.

This is a video that Nathan took of Hailey making her big girl bed.

So during the lesson, we ran upstairs, made my bed, and filled the last bar on her goal chart.

Then I decided that we should make another goal for her since she likes doing goals so much. I made a sticker chart to record her potty experience. Her goal (which she agreed to) was to keep her panties dry all day. She was very excited about this and whether it is a coincidence or not, Hailey has done much better and has pooped in the potty for a week straight. More about her progress is on our family blog since it doesn't deal much with Joy School.

Then we had a discussion about order again and sang our order song. We talked about how rainbows are pretty because they are always in the same order. Mickey Mouse had an episode about rainbows and taught a song that Hailey has remembered and sings all the time. The words are "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue! Don't forget there is purple too. Rainbow colors for me and you." When I saw this Minnie's Rainbow book at Kmart for $4 I had to get it.

For the art activity, Hailey was supposed to put the colored circles in the correct order of a rainbow. She did very well and only miss placed the blue.

And that was what we had time for. The only thing we skipped was "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Virginia Burton.

Order Part 2

This lesson started out talking about clean rooms. (This lesson would have been at a different house from the last lesson, so they have a new room to investigate.) So we read "Roo's Messy Room" from my own collection. This book is great if you have a kid who doesn't see the point of keeping their room clean.

Then we sang "Order! Order!" and "Gunny Bag". This is the only unit that we continue to sing the songs from because the Joy School Song.

After that, I read "Upside Down Kristofer" by Pat Cox about a boy who couldn't go to the zoo because he couldn't find his shoes.

For the art activity, I just provide paper, scissors, and glue and Hailey can do whatever she wants. The point is to have Hailey make a mess with cutting and cleans up after herself.
She starts out cutting circles, then decides to draw circle which ended up being daddy on blue paper and mommy on pink.

She did a very good job drawing us and cutting us out without dismembering anything.

Following that, we talked about long-term goals and read "Last One in is a Rotten Egg" by Leonard Kessler. This is a long book and I can't image reading it for a large group (5-6 kids). It's about a boy learning to swim in deep water after being pushed in by big kids fooling around and breaking rules. The only thing Hailey got out of it was if your leg hurts (which was the little boys excuse to not go to the pool again) you should go swimming. So she pretending her leg was hurting her so she could go swimming.

Then there was a group activity to clean the kitchen. I turned it into a quick activity to clean the down stair's bathroom. She loved it.

She's wiping down the sink with Clorox wipes.

Hailey's favorite part was using the toilet brush.

Order Part 1

This lesson was a little tricky because I don't have "free play time" during Joy School. In a regular Joy School, they were supposed to talk about what order means and that they can have a group goal to keep their school in order. Then Gunny bag is introduced and they kids go play and make a mess during free play time. Once their 30minutes were up, they needed to clean up and put everything back in order or gunny bag would get it.

Well, I already cleaned the front room before school so the lesson plan didn't work for us. So, I first talked about what order means, then we read "The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room". I pointed out what was clean and what was messy or in order and tried to have Hailey see the difference. (We've read this book together several times before but still thought a messy room looked beautiful.) I think by the end of the book, she could tell me correctly what was messy and what was in order and which one was better. Then we learned the "Order! Order!" song and the "Gunny Bag" song.

**Side Note: I remember the Gunny Bag song from growing up so I was excited to share it with Hailey. I especially remember my dad singing it very loudly. However, my gunny bag is a blue pillow case. Growing up it was a trash bag and very imitating. My parents weren't kidding around about throwing our stuff away. Thankfully, I don't remember gunny bag coming out too many times (maybe only once or twice).

The second part of the lesson plan was about goals again. We talked about the different skills they have now from when they were a baby and how learning to walk, talk, eat, etc were actually goals they accomplished. Since we talked about how big she is now, we read "I can do it Myself" by Sesame Street. (I found it at DI for $1).

Then we talked about our rooms and have we can have a goal of keeping them in order. Since we couldn't go into Hailey's room, my room was supposed to be the example of a clean room. My room wasn't very clean (laundry and a messy bed for the most part), so Hailey worked on her goal to learn how to make a bed which helped my room look a little cleaner. Then we went downstairs and filled in her goal chart.

We finished with a flannel board story "Oh, Oh!" by Ruth Eyre. It's about a little boy who wants to put on his winter clothes by himself but keeps doing it in the wrong order. Finally, when he gets everything on, he realizes he needs to go potty and has to take everything off again. Luckily, the next time he puts everything back on, he does it quickly because he does it in order.
Hailey liked playing with him and dressing him up.

Goals Part 3

Now I am far behind on blogging so I hope to be able to check everything up tonight. Beware!

Here we go:

We are still talking about goals but most importantly how they take patience and work. Through my own kids and babysitting, I realized that kids under the age of 6 have no concept of waiting or patience. So, as we were going through our goal pictures to see which goals take time/patience, she said she understood but I know that was just talk.

Then we read a very cute, simple book: "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss. He plants a carrot seed and takes care of it everyday while his family keeps telling him it won't grow. Until one day, a huge carrot shoots out of the ground just like the little boy knew it would.

After that we talked about some goals being silly, dangerous, or impossible to do like catching a bear. So we did the "Going on a Bear Hunt" song. However, I completely messed up the actions that went with it since I forgot how it went. Hailey still got the idea and thought it was funny.

Then I read "Whistle for Willie" by Ezra Jack Keats and sang a song about learning to whistle. However, I can't whistle. Maybe this would have been a better lesson for Nathan to do.

Finally, we ended with a small puzzle which was supposed to be a big group project. This took a long time to make and of course not all the shapes line up perfectly. I was afraid that it would be too difficult for Hailey, so I color coded the board. When I did this lesson again, I'll make the design on the opposite side without color and have the kids try that first.
Here's Hailey in front of the finished project that we worked on together. She struggled with the yellow pieces but other then that she did very well.

Goals Part 2

This lesson was also short and fun. We started with a different flannel board story about a boy's goal to be on the high school baseball time which took 10 years to fulfill.

Then we set a goal together to build a tower 3 feet high.
Sorry about the no pants pictures again, we are still potty training and no pants needs less laundry.

Hailey is practically 3 feet and was very happy when we meet our goal together.

Then I did a puppet show about kids working and meeting their goals.

After that, we worked on our goals. I helped Hailey make my bed since Robert was still napping. She was very excited to do this. Sadly, I know their will come a day where she won't want make her bed or clean her room so I'm just enjoying this helpful stage.

Next we read "The Little Engine that Could" (I found it at DI for $0.25) and filled in our goal chart.

Now I am finally all caught up on blogging about Joy School!!!

Goals Part 1

We are on a new Joy Unit: The Joy of Order and Goal Striving.

This was a quick introductory lesson on what is a goal. First I shared two flannel board stories and tried to explain and point out what they goal was. The first one was about the circus and needed to earn money to go, so Hailey missed the point and just wants to go to the circus too. The second one was about a girl making new friends which Hailey understood better.

Then we talked about different goals kids can have and then made a goal chart of our own. My goal is to finish a puppet and Hailey wants to make her bed.

For the art activity, we decorated our goal chart frames. Hailey did not want to stop decorating. She tried to glue everything I had on the table to her frame. It was getting late and I needed to end Joy school, so I took away the glue and gave her just a handful on items to put on. Then I went to get Robert up from his nap.

Hailey came up stairs saying her butterfly is missing. I thought maybe it just fell on the floor but when I got downstairs again, I was shocked. She grabbed the glue I put away when I left and dumped a huge amount on her paper, which leaked to the table, and spilled on the floor. When I started cleaning it up, I found a butterfly at the bottom of the glue pile. I was disappointed and amused at the same time.

Here's my goal chart.